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Crossroads Magazine on Monday, August 9 at 10:30 am on WB television Channel 20.
This article was published in today's Hartford Courant:
Students Learn About Food By Growing It: Agriculture Lessons In An Urban Setting
August 8, 2004
By ANDRE BOWSER, Courant Staff Writer
In the shadows of an I-84 underpass in Hartford, a handful of teenagers have found a spot in the sun as part of a program that teaches them to grow things in unlikely places. Grow Hartford, which is in its first year, grew out of a similar program on Holcomb Farm in Granby that teaches Hartford teenagers about agriculture in a rural setting. But with dirty hands and ivory smiles, these city teenagers plant neat rows of vegetables while highway traffic whizzes by high above. Daisy Huertas, 18, a student at Hartford Adult Education, said working the land is serious business, serious enough to sell the vegetables at Saturday farmers' markets on the acre of farmland at 75 Laurel St."We have a saying around here," she said. "You don't walk on your bed at home with your shoes, so don't walk on the beds of vegetables here."
Grow Hartford runs its farmer's market on Saturdays, offering various organically grown vegetables from 9 a.m. to noon. But the work of planting, harvesting and washing vegetables, which gives about 10 Hartford teenagers more than their share of things to do, is done during the week.Stepping lively last week through rows of vegetables ripe for picking was Jerica Sandiford, a 16-year-old Bulkeley High School student interested in becoming an agricultural scientist or veterinarian, "because you've got to have a backup.""The squash is ready for sale," Sandiford said, pointing to a green, mangled vine with wilted tulip-like flowers on the bright yellow cash crop."When the flower dies on a squash plant it's ready to be picked," he saidThe eggplants were also ready; so were the beans, patty squash, snap peas, cucumbers, lettuce, tomatoes and onions."Onions are three for $1," Sandiford said. "Big ones."At the first farmer's market, last month, most of the fresh produce sold quickly. "The onions sold out," said Huertas, who admitted she was more interested in the business side of the program, where participants learn to manage a farm and sell the produce. "Sometimes it just gets so muggy and hot - and the bugs!"But Huertas understands the program is not just a summer job that pays $7.35 an hour, but a symbol in a community where very little produce is grown and sold on site.
The Underwood Apartments, a convalescent home and assisted living complex, is the closest neighbor to the Grow Hartford site. Residents of the building, most of them elderly, drop by and say hello during the week - and on Saturdays they stop by and buy vegetables."They like to see us out here gardening," Sandiford said. "Some of the people from the apartment building are unable to garden."Sandiford, who also has taken classes at Harris Agriscience & Technology Center in Bloomfield for the past two years, said the program focuses on five basic elements of planting and harvesting: soil management, water management, pest management, labor management and plant diversity.
Across from a row of rainbow chard ready to be harvested, a mound of dirt and mulch is held together by chicken wire, and camouflaged by sunflowers."We're growing potatoes in the mounds next to the cut flowers, and there are beans over there. We planted the flowers all around for beauty," Sandiford said as she explained that the mounds were better than digging the potatoes out of the ground. "It's an easier method to grow them and harvest them."The program runs from April to October - the planting and harvesting season in the Northeast. It is supported by the Hartford Food System, and operates on city land that is run by the Knox Parks Foundation, both not-for-profit organizations in support of agriculture and land. Jack Hale, the executive director of the Knox Parks Foundation, said the city land had been unused before Grow Hartford asked about it a couple months ago."It was a great way to turn it into something productive and at the same time teach kids about gardening," he said.
The lessons on farming, which the teens are required to record in journals each work day, are available for viewing at the following online blog website:www.growhartford.blogspot.com. Jonathan Perez, 18, who attends Prince Technical High School, said his older brother worked at the Granby farm for two years."He told me about the program and said that I should do it too," said Perez, who is spared the 80-minute, round-trip commute his brother had to face each way.
Program Director Laura Brown said the Holcomb site is still very much alive."Grow Hartford really came out of Holcomb Farm; some of our participants are interested in getting away from the city," she said. "We wanted to connect the program to youth and the neighborhoods where the kids come from and the only way to do that is to farm in the city."
You are looking at the community lunch at the Pope Park Recreation Center. The picture shows how it looked and how many residents we had. it was very successful and i think that some people liked what we made. We made beef and veggie lasgana. At your left you have the food section and the rest of the picture is where they ate. Later on that we all gave a speech and we did good. I think we did very well but not every one came that we wrote a letter to. BY: Rodney Fernandez
Getting ready at Pope Park Rec Center. [In this picture] Donna and precious were helping with putting out the lasagne for the community lunch. Frist we had unloaded the the lasagne and put it in the kitchen we put up the flower on every table.We even put how to make the lasagne on the table and what we do for are job. - Donna Mosley 
It was me, Donna and Theresa at the Hartford club we were chopping peppers and because we were making lasagna we were getting prepared for our special day, our community lunch. First all three of us were cutting the peppers and then we had to put them in a pan so that they could boil .Then when we were finished we put the peppers on the lasagna and we were prepared for our community lunch it was fun ……
Cutting peppers at Hartford Club. 
For the past three years the Chefs from the Hartford club have donated hours of volunteer time to host us in their kitchens. This has undoubtably been one of the most successful components of the program. The Hartford Club also co-sponsors the Community Lunch each year. This year's will be held Saturday August 28 at the Pope Park Recreation Center from NOON -1 pm. 
Friday, August 13th, 2004Today we went to Holcomb Farm. First we weeded two strawberry beds while two of us took turns transplanting with Farmer Sam with the Water Wheel Transplanter. Jerica and I decided to go last after all the youth had their turns but I decided at the last minute that I didn’t want to go so Laura went instead. When it was Jerica and Laura’s turn I had to make sure the youth weeded and we had 100 more feet left to finish so we had a race and finished in no time.It was time for lunch and all the youth decided to go swimming at Salmon Creek except for Jazzmine. Jerica, Jazzmine, and I stayed with Laura and put the produce on the bus. There was this type of tomatoes in particular that caught my interest. The type was called Heirloom Tomatoes. They were very big in size and one of them weighed as much as a newborn baby. I don’t like to eat tomatoes unless it a sauce or ketchup but Laura dared me to eat it and I took a bite while she took a picture. I didn’t chew and swallow though. I spat it out and put it in the compost bucket. I remembered why I don’t like tomatoes now the taste is disgusting. But other than that I had fun. -Daisy Huertas. 
Our crew have become expert "bed raisers" already. This will help to alleviate some of the drainage problems in low lying areas of the field and provide a bit more root depth. 
On last week Friday on the 13, we went to town dairy because we learned how to milk a cow and how it produces milk. A farmer can never leave their cow in the farmer by it self because if it is not milked, the cows can get mastitis, that is when a cow has clumps of old milk. We had to feed the baby calf because they weren’t fed all morning because they was waiting for us. I got to feed the calf when the milk was almost gone. They drink out of a blue bucket that has a teet on it. How is it different from a cow because it has two teet on it but they both can catch mastitis but they stop milking in the winter. No I don’t because I don’t like cows.- ByDonna Mosley 
Bill Walsh is the Farmer at Town Farm Diary. What did you learn about Dairy Farming on our visit there? How does the farmer milk his cows, how often, and why? Describe what happens to the milk. How is this Dary Farm different from the sheep farm that Farmer Claire talked about at Hartford Club? Would you want to be a dairy farmer? Why or why not? 
Exploring an inlet on the East Hartford side.
How do use the Connecticut River? Had you ever use the Connecticut River before? Describe your experience canoeing on the River. Was there anything new to you? Anything surprising? We use the Connecticut River to go canoeing on. Yes I used the Connecticut river before to go swimming. My experience on the Connecticut River was fun. No [there wasn't anything new] because I have gone canoeing before. There were some surprising things. -Theresa 
The group paddles on the River. Canoeing was a challenge for the GROW'ers personally and as a team. At first they weren't really sure if they could be in a boat with partners who they didn't choose. It took a little while to get used to the ryhthm of the paddling and steering but verybody made it safely up and down with river without one topple into the water! Kevin was very impressed by the maturity of the group. We certainly learned a lot about what we could do.
Think of something you have done at GROW that you thought you couldn't do? Something I thought I couldn't do was canoing because I thought the canoe would flip over because my partner couldn't paddle and kept on making the canoe go the wrong way. To my surprise it did not tip over. How did that make you feel to be able to do it? It made feel that I could do it because Kevin (the canoe man) showed us how to canoe. Have you ever been canoeing before? No, it was my first time, but I liked the experience. What was challenging? Steering the boat. What was easy? Going fast with the paddles. -Allen 
Looking North on the Connecticut River.
Why are cities located on rivers? What do we use rivers for? What are ways we affect the water around us? How can we limit our impact on the river?
Some [cities] are located on the river for water supply or sometimes the houses are located near the because they probably wanted to live there to see the sights. Some people use the river to swim or to go canoeing. Sometimes they have the river to drink or to just to look at. Some reasons the water is effected is by humans when we litter the trash might go into the water and it gets polluted. The water that we pollute [might be] what we drink. We can limit are impact on the river by not to littering and stop letting the waste go into the river.- By : Precious Hairston AKA NAOMI 
Kevin Estella talks about the history of the Park River. The park river also is called the hog river because back then there used to be pigs living in the river. It effects the river by the water was getting polluted by the pigs manure. It was getting directed the city because at river used to cause floods so they had to do something with it so they build a tunnel and the water runs through there. I think that it was a good idea to put the river underground because it helps it not flood. I think it can be used if it wasn't underground by catching fish and using to start a fish restaurant. BY: Rodney FernandezA.K.A.Hazel
When this picture was taken grow hartford was at the mdc (municipal wastewater treatment plant.) When the waste water leaves your home it goes to the the mdc and then goes through a process. -Theresa.V. 
We learned a lot about the process of recycling and trash disposal at the CRRA trash museum. As the educator explained the process by which our trash in Hartford is converted to energy, (trash here is burned- the landfill is actually an ash landfill not intended for bulky wastes), Precious raised her hand with a question. Having just completed our compost lesson she wondered " ..what happens to the food waste? Does that go into the landfill too?" The educator told us that 40 year old hot dogs had been found in landfills becuase they don't get air and sunlight. Precious looked at me and we exchanged a wink. She got it!
